DIVA TALK: Catching Up with Tony Winner Chita Rivera Plus Baldwin, Callaway, Luker on CD

By Andrew Gans
November 6, 2009

News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.

CHITA RIVERA
It's been an especially busy time for Broadway favorite Chita Rivera, who was recently presented with the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. The two-time Tony Award winner, who created roles in the original productions of West Side Story and Bye Bye Birdie — both now back on Broadway — just released a new solo recording, "And Now I Swing," on the Yellow Sound label. The recording, which Rivera celebrated with a sold-out run at the famed jazz club Birdland, offers new takes on classic theatre songs from Chicago, Sweet Charity, The Happy Time and The Visit as well as jazz standards made famous by Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Billie Holiday and Vera Lynn. Rivera, who won Tony Awards for her performances in two Kander and Ebb musicals, The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman, will also launch a concert tour in 2010 that is simply titled Chita Rivera: My Broadway. Prior to her Birdland gig, I had the pleasure of chatting with the artist — the epitome of the triple threat performer — about her many new projects; that brief interview follows.

Question: Congratulations on receiving the Medal of Freedom.
Chita Rivera: I'm just still flying. The other night I saw — my brother cut something out or got it off of the computer — a picture of Bill Cosby, and he had his medal on. I'm always so pleased to hear from [Bill], but whenever anything tremendous happens to me, he seems to be the very first one to [call] — that's the first phone call. He called me and said that I must wear it all the time, no matter where I go. Even if I take the garbage out, wear the medal! [Laughs.]

Question: You should!
Rivera: You don't want to feel like you're showing anything off, but on the other hand you say, "Are you crazy? Of course you should!" It was an extraordinary feeling, and it still is. It's a great, great, great honor.

Question: How did you first hear about the honor?
Rivera: Well, my brother told me. He's my manager, and they had gotten in touch with him. I think I was on a cruise. I just thought, "Surely, they have the wrong person!" [Laughs.] . . . We've all been so humbled by it; it's something that you just don't get over. You just carry it with great pride and say, "Thank you."

Question: Did you get a chance to meet the President?
Rivera: Oh, my goodness. You haven't seen any of the pictures? [Laughs.] They're just gorgeous. It just looks like we've known each other forever and ever. He's got the most wonderful smile. He's the warmest and most sincere, he and his wife Michelle. It was a glorious time for my family, my daughter, my brothers and sisters. He's just an extraordinary guy.

Question: Did you hear today he won the Nobel Peace Prize?
Rivera: No! Oh, how fabulous! How wonderful. Well, we gotta pray everyday, that's for sure. He's been asked to do amazing things. But I gotta tell 'ya, to be in his company — I've been in the company of John Kennedy and Bill Clinton and Bush, but this man has an aura about him. He has a sincerity about him. You feel very safe. You really do feel as though he's going to give it everything he's got. You feel it when you see the two of them. And when you're talking to the aides in the White House, they all are just so up and so alive and so positive.

Question: On a different topic, you have a new CD coming out.
Rivera: Yeah, I'm thrilled to death. I haven't really heard it yet. [Laughs.] . . . . We would finish a show in a club or on the ships or something, and so many people would say, "So, where's the CD?" I don't think like that. I'm just in the theatre and I do the shows, and that's it. My drummer [Michael Croiter] said, "Well, why don't we do one since everybody's asking about it?" He's got a studio in his house, so we did it. He even had his own ideas about what the cover should look like. I'm thrilled to be with this group of young musicians that are taking me into another place in my life, which is really wonderful after so many years of doing theatre and a film here and there and lots of television and clubs in Vegas.

Question: How did you go about choosing the songs?
Rivera: I've just got this unbelievable repertoire of theatre songs. So Michael decided, why don't we do our show and just change all the arrangements. Give them another face. And that's what we've done. I think that, should I do another album, which I think I would like to do, I think probably I would then do [a jazz CD]… I used to talk to Rosemary Clooney, who was a friend, and I would say, "That's what I want to do at some time in my life! I want to sing some Johnny Mercer. I want to sing some fabulous jazz composers' songs." I think this is a step towards that.

Question: What singers were your inspiration early on?
Rivera: Certainly Rosie and certainly Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, those really smooth, smoky singers.

Question: You also have a new concert act coming up soon.
Rivera: It's going to be done in all different kinds of ways musically. Same arrangements and same show, but they'll be with symphony orchestras. Some of them will be with symphonies, some of them will be with seven or eight pieces, and some will be with my trio. It's going to be an interesting variety for me, but it's still the theatre show.

Question: Do you talk about your career in it or is it mostly singing?
Rivera: I don't have any of my swell men with me. No, I'm working on this part of my life where I just sing. The very first album I made in London was "And Now I Sing." I suddenly see myself progressively moving in different directions.

Question: That must make it interesting, I would think.
Rivera: It really, honestly does. It's not something where I've said, "Okay next I wanna do this, and next I wanna do that." I don't care what anybody says. They can plan as much as they want, but life has other directions for you at times.

Question: I think especially in this business…
Rivera: It's as simple as this. This is a very good example, I think. When we were doing Chicago, Freddy [Ebb] and John [Kander] brought me in from L.A. I was in L.A. at the time. So I get in and then Bobby [Fosse] has his heart attack and we say, "What are we gonna do?" . . . All of a sudden Ron Field and Freddy and John said, "Let's do an act." And I went, "Oh, I can't do an act. You're standing there and you're you. You can't hide behind a person." They said, "No, let's do it!" They wrote this phenomenal act with just two guys — Tony Stevens and Chris Chadman, who's passed away now — a piano player and drums at a place called The Grand Finale, which was a gay bar up on 70th Street. Who knew? And from that day I had a double life. … Liza and her husband at the time, Jack Haley, said, "Let's do it at The Backlot in L.A." This was another fabulous gay bar. It was big. And everybody came, let me tell you. Through that dance hall came Gene Kelly and Gregory Peck and Burt Reynolds. Everybody came through that gay bar. It just made me laugh, it was so great. They came to this little room in the back. And then agents came from Vegas, and then there I was with another career. I really find this rhythm of life situation a very interesting thing, but I don't think we recognize it when we're really, really young. I think we're over-anxious maybe, and that's probably the way we're supposed to be.

Question: What's it like for you as an actor with two of your big shows back on Broadway and seeing someone else doing the role you created?
Rivera: It's always a wonderful feeling when it's done as it should be done. It's always a wonderful feeling when it's done right.

Question: Is there any role, if you could go back and do again for a limited time, you would want to do?
Rivera: Oh, I'd do them all! Oh heck, I could go back and do Rosie in a minute, but I would put all of the dance numbers back. . . I'd go back and do West Side again. I'd go back and do Spider Woman again … and The Rink, I would do that again, with Liza. But the great thing about it all is that the shows were great, not just the roles, and that's the important thing.

Question: What do you think you're proudest of about your career?
Rivera: That I've been really honest and really learned from these great creative people that I've been fortunate enough to work for. It's really helped my life to have really listened and to follow and to learn from them. I've really been very true to the craft. I've really loved the theatre, I've really loved the space of the stage, I've really respected it. I still do, and I have no patience for one that doesn't.

Question: It seems like you're really a leader among the community. I think people have such respect for you and your work and you as a person. Do you feel that?
Rivera: I do. When you do feel that… and then suddenly you get something like the Medal of Freedom. The President says something, and you're sitting there saying, "God, how can I be sitting here? All I did was sing, dance and act." And then he says of everybody up there that we're there not for money, not for fame, just for passion. We wanted to do it, and we respected what we do and gave it all that we've got. And I think that's the example that I want to leave behind. When people care for you like I've been fortunate enough to be cared for, I think you owe them. You owe them the respect of thank you! You know what I mean? You've gotta say, "Thank you." You can't just take it and run and say, "See ya!" [Laughs.]

	Rivera and George Hearn in The Visit
	photo by Scott Suchman

Question: Is there anything happening with The Visit at this point?
Rivera: From your mouth to God's ear. That's the one thing. I've really tried my whole life not to really want something. When you really want it, you get kind of crazy and if you don't get it, you get really upset. So I've really put my head most of the time into, "Well, if I'm not supposed to do that, I'm not supposed to do it." But I have to tell you, I have fallen. I really would love for The Visit to be done. Not only do I think that it's a wonderful piece… Freddy and John, their score is wonderful, and Terrence [McNally's] book, and of course the original story. And Frank Galati's direction and [co-star] George Hearn… I think it's really worthwhile. We don't have many original pieces right now, and that's what we're famous for. Nobody does musical scores and books and putting them all together like we do in this country, and this is an original piece. Everybody involved with it, whether it means anything or not, they're all Tony winners. So they've been around. It's dark and it's interesting and it's different. So I want that. [Laughs.]

Question: Are there any producers attached at this point?
Rivera: At this point, no. But you never know. Spider Woman was dropped, Garth [Drabinsky] picked it up, we went on to win Tonys. I'm trying to be patient, I swear to you, but I don't know how patient I can be.

FOR THE RECORD
PS Classics has just released new recordings that spotlight three of the Broadway musical theatre's gems: Liz Callaway, Rebecca Luker and Kate Baldwin. Callaway, who has been seen on Broadway in Baby, Miss Saigon and Cats, offers an eclectic mix of tunes by pop and theatre writers. Luker, who can currently be seen as Mrs. Banks in the New York staging of Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam, devotes much of her solo recording to up-and-coming songwriters but also includes tunes by Jule Styne, Maury Yeston and John Kander. Kate Baldwin, who may be less familiar to theatre audiences—although she is currently starring in the Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow at the St. James Theatre — performs the songs of Burton Lane and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg on her debut solo disc.

Callaway boasts one of the most glorious belts in the business, and nearly three decades since she made her Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along, her sound is as powerful and clear as ever. The singing actress begins her recording, "Passage of Time," with a wonderful new song by Ragtime's Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens entitled "Nothing to Lose (But Your Heart)." Callaway sends the melodic and touching tune soaring and works similar wonders with songs by Lennon and McCartney ("Eleanor Rigby"), Stephen Sondheim ("Children Will Listen" and a passionate "Being Alive") and James Taylor ("Secret o' Life"). Theatre fans will be anxious to hear Callaway's wonderful rendition of "Patterns" (a song cut from Baby that was originally sung by Callaway's co-star, Beth Fowler) and a pairing of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Perfect Year" and "Memory" (Callaway performed the latter for several years in the long-running Cats). Ann Hampton Callaway also joins her sister for a great rendition of the Carly Simon-Jacob Brackman hit "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be."

Luker, a shining presence in The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden and revivals of Show Boat, The Sound of Music and The Music Man, possesses one of great sopranos in the musical theatre, and on her new solo CD "Greenwich Time," she showcases both that rangy soprano and her lower register. The three-time Tony nominee starts her 14-track disc with Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman's "On My Way to You" and then presents several tunes by lesser-known composers. The highlights of the disc, however, are a beautiful rendition of Maury Yeston's "Unusual Way," a tune Luker performed in the Tony-winning revival of Nine; and the terrific new John Kander song, "Summer with You."

Kate Baldwin has been thrilling audiences at regional theatres around the country for years — this diva lover still recalls her zesty, Helen Hayes-nominated performance as Nellie in Arena Stage's South Pacific —and she now has Broadway audiences enthralled with her first major role: Sharon McLonergan in Finian's Rainbow. Baldwin pays tribute to the composer (Burton Lane) and lyricist (E.Y. Harburg) of that classic musical on her solo disc, "Let's See What Happens." What happens, it should be noted, is something terrific: a perfect melding of singer and songs. The highlight is a superb "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?"

Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.